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The doorway itself is distinctly of Philadelphia type, high, relatively narrow, and deeply recessed, with the soffit of the arch and the cheeks of the jambs beautifully paneled and a handsome semicircular fanlight above the single eight-panel door but with no side lights. The effect of the keystone and imposts, also the enrichment of the semicircular architrave casings are characteristic.
The single, high eight-panel door recalls many having a similar arrangement of molded and raised panels, but differs from most of them in that the lock rail is about double the width of the two rails above. Narrower, with more slender columns, and thus seemingly higher, is the doorway of the Wharton house, Number 336 Spruce Street.
Like six-panel single doors, the upper panel was often almost square, and the middle oblong panel higher than the bottom one of the same shape. At Mount Pleasant the middle and lower panels were of the same size. Eight-panel single doors were employed extensively throughout the eighteenth century, and this is one of the most picturesque and distinctive of Philadelphia types.
The fanlight is of simple but pleasing pattern, and the eight-panel door is of characteristic design. At Number 301 South Seventh Street the doorway itself strongly resembles that of the Powel house, except that it is higher, narrower and rather lighter in scale.
The doorway of the Perot-Morris house, deeply recessed because of the thick stone walls, presents at its best another variation of this sturdiest of Philadelphia types with a single, eight-panel, dark-painted door and a very broad top stone step before it.
A knocker of slender grace is the best feature of the hardware. The South Seventh Street entrance, higher and narrower, presents another example of the dark-painted door rendered the more interesting by reason of its eight-panel arrangement, the spacing being that usually employed for double doors. The wood trim, molded but nowhere carved, commends itself for effective simplicity.
Of the doors mentioned, that at Wayne Junction is unique in its flat molded panels. A corresponding panel arrangement of double doors is to be seen at The Highlands. Usually, however, four-panel double doors took the alternate small and large panel arrangement and were virtually halves of the more common type of eight-panel single door.
Another less common type of eight-panel single door is shown in accompanying illustrations by doors at Number 4908 Germantown Avenue, Number 39 Fisher's Lane, Wayne Junction and Number 224 South Eighth Street. The panel arrangement consisted of three pairs of nearly square panels above the lock rail and one pair twice as high below.
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